Kaye Fallick

Kaye is a retirement commentator and coach, with 25 years’ experience writing about retirement income. She has authored two books on life stage changes – Get a New Life and What Next? – and enjoys regular radio and podcast appearances. Her favourite mission is to offer plain English explanations of complex rules so that all retirees can benefit. She is based in Melbourne but enjoys escaping to Italy whenever possible.
12-month super fund returns: And they are buoyant!

12-month super fund returns: And they are buoyant!

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It’s a very human need to want to know how you are doing compared with other people of your age and stage. It’s not the same as ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ which is a more competitive, status-driven urge. Knowing where you sit in the pecking order is very useful. This knowledge might be associated with aspects of health, wealth, education or work achievements. Humans love to know how they are performing and it’s no different when it comes to investment performance. Many retirees keenly track stock exchange information so they know how their investments are performing. Homeowners usually have a keen interest in their neighbourhood’s property prices. Even vintage car owners like to know what their make and model is now worth.

But what about super?

The funny thing about superannuation is that many people simply do not know, from year to year, how their super savings are performing. What’s so different about super you might well ask? It’s a question that many financial services experts have also pondered. We know that engagement is low because the data tells us that only about 44% or Australians with super bother to open, let alone read, their annual super statement.

If this is you and you are retired or planning to be so soon, this is not good practice. With most Australians holding more than $210,000 in super savings as they approach retirement, not understanding your super’s earning capacity, fees charged or relative performance amounts to really taking your eye off the ball. 

Super funds performance Financial Year 2023-24Today we are sharing a ‘scoop’, a projection by independent ratings agency, SuperRatings, on the expected returns for both pension and accumulation funds for the 2023-2024 financial year. The final results will not be published until July 20, as some funds take a little longer to finalise valuations. But the following table reveals up to 25 June 2024, how the different sectors have performed over the 12-months period.

Managing retirement risk: Finding your sweet spot

Managing retirement risk: Finding your sweet spot

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Last week we explored the topic of risk and how a better understanding of investment risk can boost your retirement income. We received a lot of follow-on questions on this topic, particularly the Retirement Essentials Market Risk Levels, so today we are sharing how we work with our members to increase their understanding of risk and assist them to explore ways that different settings can help increase income across their retirement journeys.

In a sense, the work our qualified advisers are doing is a Masterclass in understanding retirement income investment. As Alison Squire, Head of Advice at Retirement Essentials notes, our financial wellbeing can be as important as our physical and mental wellbeing. But financial wellbeing is not just dependent on how much money you have. It’s more closely aligned with a sense of security and confidence that you can cover your expenses today, tomorrow and beyond. And that you can do so in a way that ensures you are living a comfortable, rather than constrained, lifestyle.

Can understanding risk increase your income?

Can understanding risk increase your income?

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Talking about risk and retirement is a little like talking about debt and retirement. We may be aware that we need to confront this, but words like risk and debt can have negative connotations. This means many of us will avoid ever ‘going there’. But this can be a mistake. It’s usually only by managing debt and understanding risk that we can fully maximise our later life income.

In search of an easier way to tackle these thorny issues, it occurred to me how much most of us love a makeover. Whether it’s a farmer in search of a wife, a ‘grand design’ for a renovation or a bootcamp in the jungle to fast-track fitness, most of us love to see the foundational work-in-progress which is necessary to create better outcomes.

How does this foundational work translate to managing money? Not as a quick fix, that’s for sure. But creating strong foundations by understanding investment risk is a very useful strategy. It starts with self-knowledge and then applying this understanding to the way you invest and the settings you choose. Today we explore this topic and look at a ‘makeover’ that could lead to $100,000 extra in retirement savings, should Bevan and Anne make this choice.